Giving the support site a refresh

Keeping WordPress.com’s documentation up to date and accessible is one part of what the Happiness Team works on. We’ve long had lots of documentation, but we realized that the design and flow of the support site spoke more to us Happiness Engineers. How backward is that?

That all changes today. :) Before, you saw a long page filled with lists. Now you see eight content groupings on the homepage.

Before

After!

We looked at a lot of data about where people run into problems with WordPress.com. Using this we redesigned the site by weeding back overgrown lists, eliminating overly complicated jargon, and putting the answers to the questions you’ve asked most front and center.

If those new sections don’t have the answers you seek, we prominently placed a very effective search option at the top right that is perfect for pinpointing an answer to an obscure issue.

There’s more coming too so keep an eye out. We’ll keep working hard to make it even easier to find the information you need.

Email Newsletter

Missing out on the latest WordPress.com developments? Enter your email below to receive future announcements direct to your inbox. An email confirmation will be sent before you will start receiving notifications - please check your spam folder if you don't receive this.

I’ve been using the new support page this morning while answering support forum questions. I like the new easy to navigate design layout very much and I’m looking forward to seeing what the next changes will be. Good work!

It looks really nice and much easier to navigate for someone new like me. I feel I must ask one question. Where’s the “Information for seniors” button? (section?) A dictionary of terms used that older minds can understand. I’m sorry if this is the wrong place to ask.

From the science fiction write: much more streamlined! I love it. This will indeed be easier – or at least funner. I usually could find what I was looking for on the support site, but this is much nicer.

I love the fact that Happiness Engineers are working away to help in their dark cavens, then suddenly a burst of sunlight of the new support layout, just like the miracle css helpers that just popped up and are completely wonderful

The older version was a bit naff really; I usually ended up having to google the answers I needed…. often that let me find a page in the WordPress documentation I’d never have found using its own internal navigation. :)

This is great… but you know what would be even better? If there was a way to show (on our blog page) all the subscribers to the blog… you know, a number of how many subscribers there are & little pictures all lined up – sort of like how you’ve got the “xxx bloggers like this post” pictures up above. It’d be great to have that feature. Other blog hosting companies do… Thanks.

I’m very thankful my friend told me about WordPress. I’ve been building my site for the last 6 weeks and I think your Support Page has been excellent. Knowing you guys are motivated to continue to improve it is very cool. One suggestion I would have is adding an ability to sort the sidebar on the Dashboard. I’m constantly looking for “All Pages” and would love it if I could move any areas I use a lot to the top of the list. Thanks to all at WordPress who have made it possible for me to be my own “webmaster”! I tell everyone I talk to that if I can do it, they can too.

One of the frustrations with WordPress is the disconnect with vendors who design lovely themes, but the download instructions are so obtuse and require some knowledge of programming. I recently purchased a subscription to Elegant Themes and had chosen The Professional. After hours of trying to choose it as my theme and incorporate it it into the WordPress dashboard, I learned I needed to work through WordPress.org and that the instructions did not facilitate me with how to do it, just more psuedo assistance that wasn’t helpful. I ended up asking for a subscription refund, which Elegant Themes processed immediately. I’ve moved onto Moonfruit. I really liked The Professional. It met all my needs.

Since WordPress is open source and anyone can contribute, there’s always a chance what you’re describing will happen. But hopefully it won’t happen often, and keep in mind that the WordPress.com support team is around to help you if you have questions!

The problem I see with your support site is that it is impossible to get support. I click on support contact form or 24/7 support and am redirected to a seach. I enter things in the search and it goes nowhere. I am constantly redirected and never get support.

The form shouldn’t constantly redirect. Did you make sure to fill out all of the required fields? I’ve just tested the form to make sure it’s working, and it worked in my test. We’re continuously working to find ways to make support for WordPress.com *completely* awesome, so the form and other support-related things are always getting updated. We love getting good feedback, and we’re always happy to test if you think there’s any trouble.